A living community of prayer and worship, whose building remains

from a prosperous abbey that was washed away by the sea seven

hundred years ago.

Also one of the few places in our diocese where you might need to wait for a herd of cows to cross

the road at milking time.

St Peter’s North Hayling We have a visitors’ book on the chest

near the font, and the entries in it help us to see how much this church building and the churchyard mean to people. Some come back time and time again, some come across it by chance as they walk along the footpaths which criss-cross the island. All seem to find St Peter’s a place of peace and a source of restoration of spirit. It has a timeless and unchanging quality about it in its simplicity and its centuries of presence and it is easy to rest in the presence of God the un-changing One. We keep the church open in the day-time and we hope that you will feel able to spend some time in prayer and quiet reflection. There are prayer leaflets to help you if you wish and a prayer board on which to leave a request for prayer. These requests are offered to God each week in the Wednesday morning Holy Communion service.

Will you leave your own spiritual footprint in this place?

A place of prayer

S p i r i t u a l f o o t p r i n t

Where God imprints his presence on your world

Main Sunday Service time: 9.15 Holy Communion

For all other information visit www.haylinganglicans.co.uk Vicar: Revd Ann Leonard, 023 9246 1980

Questions to ponder The rhythm of life here has been shaped by the pattern of monastic daily prayer and the needs of the farm animals. What shapes your life? The original Hayling Priory is now lost under the sea, though 1000 years ago it had many monks and 3 church buildings. What is impor-tant in your life? Will it be remembered 1000 years from now? A place of prayer is a sign of human longing for the great mystery that is beyond their reach, which we call God. Where do you feel close to that mystery? Touch one of these ancient stones and remember the person who shaped it, who like you wondered about God and life.

William the Conqueror gave the manor of Hayling to the abbey of St Peter of Jumieges, in France, in 1067. The monastic commu-nity on Hayling Island had been founded from Winchester in the reign of Ethelred, and Winchester and Jumieges disputed the grant for nearly 100 years. Northwood Chapel was built in about 1140 and this be-came the present St. Peter’s Church. It originally served as a “Chapel of Ease” providing a place of worship for those who lived and worked at North Hayling and were some distance from where the Priory church stood before the floods of the 13th century washed the main church away. (There are marks on the exterior indicating the tide level - and it is probable that in C13th there was a major inundation). The structure of St. Peter’s has altered little since it was originally built, with the Chancel and North Chapel being added in the early thirteenth century. Large external but-tresses were added to the church in both the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to provide extra support to the church walls.

The south east walls and buttresses have three sundials carved into them, used for timing.

A quarter of a mile away are the remains of a Roman temple complex, and it is likely that much of the building material came from there, e.g. limestone and tiles.

A thousand years of living prayer

Inside the church The church was built without foundations with its internal pillars supported on large sarsen stone (boulders believed to have been de-posited by transitory ice some 75,000 years ago). The font dates from the very begin-ning of the building. Think of all the men, women and children who have been bap-tized at this font through the centu-ries.

The rails separating the nave from the chancel could well have been ordered by Archbishop Laud (1573-1645) to protect the altar from “ye foulyng of dogges” in a rural area. There are old oak pews, with poppy head ends with holes for candles or rush lights. These are believed to be sixteenth or seven-teenth century. There are three bells, fitted with half wheels, in frames, which are probably medieval; they were cast about 1350 at the Whitechapel Foun-dry in Dorset and it is believed that this ring of three bells is one of the oldest in the country.

The churchyard There are three Russian Orthodox graves in St Peter’s churchyard, one of which is that of the Russian Princess Catherine Yourievsy – who was the youngest daugh-ter of Tsar Alexander II (the liberator of the serfs).

Princess Catherine came to live on Hayling in 1934. The Princess then fell on hard times and was supported by the church. She died in 1959 aged 80, and although she had converted to Catholi-cism she was buried in the churchyard at St Peter’s. The Russian authorities want her

body back so that she can be buried with her father in the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul in St Petersburg.

Also buried in the churchyard is the head of the RAF Fighter Command, Air Chief Marshal Sir Roderick Hill, who lived in Northney.

While you stand in the churchyard, look out across the fields. This is a land shaped by the sea, and its people have earned their living from it as well as farming. The beauty of nature and the harvest of the land are gifts we receive in thankfulness, and share.